No club has ever spent more money in a season, but Chelsea are closer to the relegation zone than they are to qualifying for the Champions League. These are turbulent times for coach Graham Potter.
A few days ago, Graham Potter took part in a press conference, of course it was about his work as a Chelsea FC coach. Potter spoke about the connection between failure and pressure, but also emails. Apparently he recently received some unpleasant ones from them. There had been death threats, Potter said, against him and also against his family. “Of course it’s not pleasant.”
Potter, 47, will soon be Chelsea FC coach for six months, it is not yet a success story. You can criticize a lot about his work, not only the record in the Premier League (five wins from 18 games), but also his tactical and personal changes. Only none of this justifies threats, let alone death threats.
The mood around Chelsea FC will hardly have improved afterwards. On Sunday (26/02/2023), two days after the press conference with Potter, Chelsea lost to Tottenham in the Premier League, the gap to a Champions League place is now greater than the lead to a relegation zone.
Potter had ballet danced and nice football played
It is certainly the most difficult phase in the career of trainer Potter, before that he was more responsible for the nice stories. They started out sometimes whimsical, with ballet and a solo performance as a singer in Jamska, the regional language of the Swedish region of Jämtland. There Potter was a coach at Östersunds FK for many years. When he came the club was a third division, he led them to the Europa League.
They didn’t play like an outsider there, they played really good football. There was media that wrote about a Swedish response to FC Barcelona. And at the same time they had this art thing, as Potter once called it. Ballet and concert performances as a team building measure.
Stories about Potter now have a different tonality
At some point Potter had outgrown Östersunds FK. He went back to his native Britain, coached Swansea and Brighton in the Premier League for three and a half years. And Potter was successful: Brighton also played fine football, almost a unique selling point in English football’s middle class.
When the new owners of Chelsea FC around Todd Boehly were looking for a new coach after Thomas Tuchel split in September, they may have remembered the Brighton games. But maybe they just looked at the table, where Brighton were ahead of Chelsea. Nothing has changed, only the stories about Potter have a different tonality today.
No club has spent more than Chelsea in one season
Potter is now in charge of a club that recently won the Champions League but are now a long way from qualifying for the competition. The expectations of him were different than tenth place in the league with 31 points after 24 games. Especially since Chelsea have spent more than €600m on new players this season, more than any club before.
In January, the club signed players like Enzo Fernández and Michailo Mudryk, both of which are said to have cost a hundred million euros or more. They signed until 2031, it’s a trick to comply with UEFA’s new rules on “financial sustainability” despite the high expenses.
And sometimes money doesn’t score goals after all
There are now some fine footballers in Chelsea’s squad, especially on the offensive, just think of Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz, João Félix and Mudryk, Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount, Hakim Ziyech. But the balance is missing. Chelsea have technicians, dribblers, speed players, but coach Potter is still looking for a goalscorer.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can score goals, but Potter doesn’t count on him. Tuchel had fetched him. Havertz, 23, who is also a gifted footballer, but not a center forward, usually plays in the center of the attack. Havertz has scored five goals in the Premier League, making him Chelsea’s top scorer.
In the second leg against BVB, Chelsea are about more than progressing
After the defeat by Tottenham, which left Chelsea without a goal for the fourth time in their last five league games, Potter said the results were not good at all and he took responsibility.
Of course, he was also asked on this occasion how secure he felt his job was. “In such a situation”said Potter, “you can’t count on support forever.”
At the weekend, relegation candidates Leeds United are waiting in the Premier League, then they face Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 in the Champions League. The competition is Chelsea’s last chance to possibly win a title after all, but there is little to be said for it. Chelsea narrowly lost the first leg. A resignation, that much is certain, would certainly not improve the job security of the trainer Potter.